Assistance by the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security to the Project in bateyes of the Dominican Republic

On June 14, the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, which was established through the initiative of the Government of Japan, decided to extend assistance totaling 2,569,600 US dollars (approximately 208 million yen) to a project entitled "Improving human security in the Bateyes of the Dominican Republic by securing documentation and ensuring that vulnerable people's needs are met" , which is going to be implemented in the Dominican Republic by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

There are communities called "bateyes", which are traces of sugar cane plantations initiated during the early 20th Century in the Dominican Republic, in the island of Hispaniola, of which eastern part is governed by the Dominican Republic and the western part is governed by Haiti. Migrant workers from Haiti, their descendents and the vulnerable population of Dominicans have been living in bateyes, highly isolated from the rest of the Dominican society, with limited access to basic services such as health, education, water and sanitation. In addition, legal status of residents in bateyes has been unstable, particularly because of changes in immigration laws and policies by the government of Dominican government.

The project aims to promote the human security of the residents in bateyes through securing documentation and ensuring that vulnerable people's needs are met. The activities will include the following:

-- Protecting residents in bateyes from threats to personal and political security by securing documentation and decreasing discrimination and improving cooperation between the bateyes and the surrounding communities.
-- Improving economic security by promoting the bateyes population's income generation capacity.
-- Decreasing the high levels of food insecurity by improving infrastructure.
-- Advancing health security for residents in batayes through increasing access to basic primary care and health education.
-- Increasing environmental security for residents in batayes by improving disaster management skills and securing access to clean water and renewable energy.

This project is expected to promote the human security of the vulnerable population in bateyes in the Dominican Republic.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)